From February 5-7, 2026, the Social Anthropology Unit organized the Annual Meeting of the Swiss Anthropological Association. Around 150 social anthropologists from Switzerland and beyond have participated in lively debates in the 21 panels around the conference topic "Care, Maintenance, Decay: Ways of attending to vulnerability in a transforming world”.

We were delighted to host the keynote speaker Prof. Christina Schwenkel from the University of California, Riverside. She shared insights into her research in Vietnam in her keynote speech on "Reuse and Repair as Matters of Urban Care: Shapeshifting in a Time of Climate Crisis."

The conference was supported by the Schweizerische Akademie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften and the Fonds d’Action Facultaire of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Fribourg.

Image: Lena Kaufmann and Madlen Kobi officially opening the conference on Feb 5 with a welcome speech. (Photo: Esther Leemann).